Having one main door for an entrance and one main area for the exit this year for the dealers hall was great this year. The elevators worked really well. In general the convention seemed a lot more organized especially in terms of the guidebook, photoshoots, panels and gatherings.

This post has been edited by xSaria: 19 May 2013 - 04:07 PM

The local aquarium is a bad place to fight jellyfish. You could be arrested.

The super patient and awesome IRT's in general! Having to make people form lines looks super hard but they seem to have dealt with it with grace and poise. I always try to say thank you whenever I pass by an IRT at ACen but THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN! ACen would not funtion without you!

I was actually really pleased with IRT as well. I have to admit it seemed very well organized and everyone was super polite. Thank you, all of you. I also wanted to throw out a very huge huge thank you to ALL masquerade staff. You all were very patient and helpful especially with us big costume people. Everything ran so smoothly. I know things get a little hectic when you have a million cosplayers asking questions or freaking out but i saw so many staff going above and beyond what was needed.

Kitsune Kon Head of Guest relations
Hope is comforting. It allows us to accept fate, no matter how tragic it might be. ~ Yunalesca FFX

All the staff and IRT I met this year were really great. In particular, the IRT for the Oregon Trail line were fantastic: Amazon, Van, Count, Cloudspire, just to name a few of the members I saw. The IRT gentleman with the kilt in charge of the Ember Island Players line did an amazing job as well. Big thanks to the rest of the staff!

Best guest list we've had in years. Helen McCarthy seriously needs to be invited again. She was even more phenomenal than I was expecting. The selection of panels was excellent this year, too, and I felt like a lot of things ran more smoothly than usual. Things were opening on time more often, for instance.

1. Kalafina was awesome and the whole ticket process was well handled.
2. The orange cones by the main programming entrance. Every year it gets harder to walk around there so it was nice to have a bit of extra room.
3. Intercon, I'm so happy they are on the conblock. Our room was huge o_o;;
4. The Prom kids at the intercon. They were actually very nice ( I saw a few Host Club guys taking photos with some of the ladies, very nice ;D )
5. Signage was a nice touch.
6. Staff was pretty friendly this year and I didn't see any of the zombie faces of last year
7. Despite being smaller and released kinda late, a solid guest list.
8. Water ,glorious icy pitchers. I know thats a weird compliment but it was so nice compared to the usual hardly full coolers

-Everything seemed to go a lot more smoothly this year than last year. Especially later at night; I don't know what you did differently, but walking back to my hotel room at two in the morning didn't take me through a crowd of mass chaos like it did last year, for which I am extremely grateful.
-IRT was great. Every single one I encountered was very polite and friendly. There was one who was trying to herd the line of people going into the exhibit hall on Sunday - I didn't catch his name, but he was awesome. Instead of barking orders at us he was really nice and kept a sense of humor about the whole thing, which made it a lot less frustrating than it could have been.
-Guidebook app was awesome. Thank you for keeping it so up-to-date!

- Layout of the Exhibit hall was overall easy to navigate and move through; I never got lost!

- Confusion seemed to be at a minimum among con-goers (like they were easily able to find where they wanted to go)

- Variety of vendors/artists/industry guest were great!

- Number and variety of panels seemed good, although I was unable to attend any this year due to working in the Artist's Alley.

On a side note, I appreciated that most of the artists and vendors I talked to were actually fans of anime/manga/games/etc and not just here to make a quick buck. I had a few great conversations with people running booths/tables in the Alley and in the Dealer's hall about anime, video games, and cosplaying.

Overall, this was my best ACen ever! I had a fantastic time, met some cool people, and just had a fun time.

As always, the ability to get our schedules on Thursday night! As well as mailing our badges out! I know it seems silly to say that, but I remember when you had to wait in line even if you pre-ordered your badge.

The water was well stocked this year!

The guy who does the chalk art! I always enjoy seeing him and the fact that he was doing one on one of my favorite Animes was even better.

Um lets see, There were no tools in irt this year so thats a welcome sign, signage was better this year, as well as I liked the two places for programing and customer service in the hyette and they seemed to have resources to tell me when theings were going on or where they were this year as opposed to fumbling around for info two years ago and last year.
Also,had a good amount of cultural pannels in philosophy and religion in anime and japan, an importent thing to me, but the one pretty lady in white and blue that ran the 11:00 pm panel should have went more into depth about the religions for someone that majored in religious studies she could have done a better job of it, and could have been better informed about the people of faiths, like christianity, and about the two schools of zen buddaism, like the differance between the soto school, and the renzi school of thought.

I have to thank that the lines for the kalfina signing were fast even though there were two of them I still managed to get in and get signed in under 25 minuts as opposed to waiting the whole hour for someone like eyeshine or vic mignoga and still not getting a signature.

and registration was only a 10 minute wait or so, none of the guests I met were arrogent at all or stuck up, I have ran into some at other times where they treated me like a pest when I try to ask questions or want my book signed.

I have to thank the con and cosplay makers for the cosstudio for the long hours they were open so that I could finnaly finish off my costume and put the finnal touches on it, and would like to thank Jon Baugh saber the head of the masqurade for the boxsets he gave out to returning competitors from last year those are not all that cheap and boxsets usually cost 30 dollers each, and I thought it was mighty generous, um also for working with me on the fact I had two songs and they were able to cut down the changeover during my performance without the usual wait between tracks so the switch was flawless almost during my performance number 11 the paladin, which may be my last skit for a year or two as I am out of ideas, and I am sure people dont want to see me just dance after seeing me do it for three years, time for a new type of claim to fame, instead of just dancing I could also do some comady or something speaking, I am disapponted though I could not do my full skit, with the lipsynching to never gonna give you up, but they said I would be torturing the audiance as they have had to see that meme soo often over the last 8 years, they would kill me if I did it for too long. So I will eventualy make a video for those that want to see how I intended for it to go.

And a big thanks to the masqurade staff for being soo leaniant about me constantly getting drinks and going to the bathroom as I get a bit of stage fright every time I either do a running race or have to perform infront of lots of people, once I get on though I am fine and soak up the attention to my God given gifts I share during those times, they were also very casual about the signup and were wide open for review the two times I came, once to sign in and once to actually bring my props with me to do the review.

the staff was much better prepared this year with what was happening at a given time and did not have to fumble around all and all, I just wish there were more big names though to have a fresh face like yukino out of japan when she is a rising star instead of years after where her appeal might not be as high, and having several directors speak input during a pannel is a welcome sight though I do like voice actors greatly, and there were not as many this year, and as for sonny I seen him at ikasucon the last three years, hes a nice and tallented guy but seen him soo often. oh and I do enjoy all the battle pods they are loads of fun to play, as well as allowing all the music from local djs and photo shoots late at night that just happen to be at the con, this is where I like the music best as its closer to the real local underground rave and electronic music that I am used to, nothing against the soap bubble but its too packed and the music too mainstream and dubstep not enough house its chicago baby the home of house.

oh and the rampant destruction seemed far less this year in the hotels then in years past like the dome getting smashed out, or the infamous urianal off the wall from years past.

Last, of all, for all the swag they gave this year, and for letting me get away with a few shots that well kind of held up the line without giving me too much trouble over it, as sometimes cosplayers just dissapper in the huge hall after you see them and did not get a photo of them when you wanted one.

thank you see you in 2014 hopefully

Signed Jeremy manga1 the popping paladin and dancing david from blood +

• Except for a spat of bleh feeling Saturday morning to evening (and my own fault as I came to realize), I didn't get sick. Always good.
• Met more people this year. Good.
• IRT was stout and not overbearing. Good presence.
• Burlesque show needs to return.

* I was actually surprised by how many things I wanted to go to this year. I'm pretty sure there were a lot more panels this year then previous ones at that was a great thing! I ended up not getting to go to all of them because of overlap but it was great to actually HAVE a full list because some years I've had hours of time where there was literally nothing I wanted to do.

* Series/movie premiers are really cool and something that always tempts me! I went to the Lupin/Fujiko one and it was even more awesome considering it was run by one of the voice actors and a Funimation representative that were super happy to chat with us and share the experience.

* The guest list might have been a little lacking this year but the industry guests amazed me! I couldn't believe how many of them came and I loved going by their booths.

* The water scattered around was amazing! Not to mention the fact that I heard IRT actually mentioning staying hydrated while waiting in lines.

* Being able to get our books Thursday. The sooner the better!

* Can city charity! I was really really bummed out that I forgot to pack cans and wished there had been more advertisement of the event, but the whole idea behind it was totally amazing and I hope it comes back next year.

* THE BURLESQUE SHOW. Easily one of the more unique new programs added, I had a total blast and adored the fact that it was actually anime/videogamed themed. The girls were fabulous, the room was packed, and I saw a visably larger female attendee population then many 18+ panels I've been too which is cool. PLEASE bring it back and PLEASE make it longer!! I would have ate up every moment of the 2 hours it was scheduled for (when in reality it only ran about 30 minutes).

I have another compliment! Thanks to whomever changed/updated the props acceptability policies! I was happy to see all the cosplayers, myself included, that were able to use disabled airsoft guns for our gun props.

Overall I felt a lot of things were a lot smoother this year. Check in for the AA was fast and easy, and with the easy to navigate layout of the Alley, we were able to find our booth (and others as needed) quickly. I felt this AA layout was a huge improvement over last year's!

Big big thank you to the staffer wearing the pikachu hat that helped us out regarding the Politics in Gameing panel! He was really sweet and was able to get back to me on some information for a friend's CD, So if anyone knows him please tell him the girl with the blue Muppet in the pink dress with the fairy wings says Thank you ever so much for his help.

First off, The staff at The Hilton were downright amazing. They answered all the questions with a smile and helped us find the answers. The rooms were amazing, also the pool and fitness center. Very nice layout.

IRT were amazing. Everyone was polite to us when directing lines, and always tried to help figure stuff out. Special Thanks to Amazon for the lighter, mine was a Soap Bubble victim. You saved me a trek.

Panels: I was so caught up in my first ACen experience that I only made it to one, Whose Smut is it Anyway? 18+, and I am so glad we made it to that one. It was hilarious, I recommend bringing it back next year in a bigger room.

Hardcore Synergy was fun, but for me Soap Bubble was a blast. The crowd was different, more friendly and happy. Staff was amazing! The ice cold water kept us going, it as just what we needed to keep hydrated for the night, Thank You for having it all night.

The Exhibit Hall staff were all polite, and I thought the lines In and Out made it easier to navigate for a first time ACen goer, especially when navigating a friend's wheelchair. Everything was pretty accessible.

ADA: You were all amazing beyond words. You made sure we had absolutely no issues.

The Roommate Zone, it worked out amazingly for us, We found the most amazing roomies ever!

Such a good experience this year! Two things in particular I really wanted to touch on.

1. Not allowing pictures at the Kalafina signing (at least on Friday when I went). As much as I would have loved to snap their picture, I'm sure this moved the line MUCH quicker and allowed more people to see them briefly. I'd like for all signings to be this way honestly, even though having a picture is nice. (And this is coming from the girl who was first in line and was definitely getting her stuff signed no matter what)

2. On Saturday night the Uta no Prince Sama phootshoot was to take place at the East Outdoor Wall. My issue with this place is that it's a smoking zone. By the time we got there, the place was littered with people smoking and cigarettes and other trash everywhere. I told the people on the grassy area there where photoshoots happen that they needed to move. Half did, the other half gave me a "yeah right, who do you think you are?" look. So I warned them if they didn't move I was calling IRT. Still didn't move. Went inside, grabbed the first two IRT I could find, brought them outside. They managed to clear the grassy area, even though they couldn't really force the smokers out the area completely. I didn't catch their badge names, but THANK YOU so much to those two <3 Without you, we were kind of at a loss for what to do. The smokers were still rude and kept trying to sit back in the grass after that, but I yelled at them and they moved (3 times ). For next year, is it possible to like, move the smoking area further away from that grassy patch there? Or have 1 IRT stationed there to make sure photoshoots there have no issues with the smokers and that the grassy area is kept clean of cigarette butts and other trash?

Such a good experience this year! Two things in particular I really wanted to touch on.

1. Not allowing pictures at the Kalafina signing (at least on Friday when I went). As much as I would have loved to snap their picture, I'm sure this moved the line MUCH quicker and allowed more people to see them briefly. I'd like for all signings to be this way honestly, even though having a picture is nice. (And this is coming from the girl who was first in line and was definitely getting her stuff signed no matter what)

I agree with this re; Kalafina. However, I appreciate allowing photos when the line and the guests themselves allow it. Yuu Asakawa's Friday line wasn't very long, and I love that I have a picture of myself with her while I'm cosplaying a character from a series she was in. That's altogether an awesome experience there, and no one missed out on an autograph in that line. So really it's a circumstantial sort of thing, and I hope it continues to be treated that way. (Also some specific guests don't allow pictures, too, regardless of line length. That's also worth keeping in mind).